[OLPC library] [OLPC-Games] [sugar] Physics -- Newtonian mechanics.. for kids!

[Alan Kay]

I very much agree with this! Simulations are still "just math" and "real science" is about the relationships we can build between our representations (which are in the end "just stories", even if coherent and logically connected) and "what's out there". This "outlook" (or the more fancy phrase "epistemological stance") is the most important part of learning science (and is the least well taught or learned -- at least in the US).

Bad simulations can be edifying if a real effort is made to see what the real world seems to do, but most people, and especially most children, are all too willing to substitute the story for the mapping.

Cheers,

Alan


----- Original Message ----
From: Yoshiki Ohshima <yoshiki at vpri.org>
To: library at lists.laptop.org; sugar at lists.laptop.org; Games for the OLPC <games at lists.laptop.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:27:45 AM
Subject: Re: [OLPC-Games] [sugar] [OLPC library] Physics -- Newtonian mechanics.. for kids!

At Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:33:50 -0700,
Joshua Minor wrote:
> 
> 
> That doesn't mean that it is pointless to use as a teaching aide, just  
> that (in)accuracy of simulation needs to be part of the lesson plan.

  Yes.  And it should be rather more carefully built because the
visual (iconic) impact of these simulations is too big.

  The physics is about constant validation the model against the real
world out there, to see if the model has some power of predicting what
is going to happen.  The model is described a language called
mathematics.

  But the computer is just mathematics that doesn't have the real
world connection.  The engines like Box2D are its own kind of
mathematics, and the "simulation" visible to the user is just the
visualization of the mathematics.

  In that sense, the Physics activity should be treated by teachers as
the tool for teaching mathematics that tend to be used in physics,
rather than teaching physics.  (Subtle distinction but it is I think
important.)

-- Yoshiki
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